St John the Baptist Church is located to the northeast of the village of Tunstall,

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

, England. It is an active

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in com ...

in the united

benefice A benefice () or living is a reward received in exchange for services rendered and as a retainer for future services. The Roman Empire used the Latin term as a benefit to an individual from the Empire for services rendered. Its use was adopted by ...

of East Lonsdale, in the deanery of Tunstall, the archdeaconry of Lancaster and the

diocese of Blackburn The diocese of Blackburn is diocese of the Church of England in North West England. Its boundaries correspond to northern Lancashire. The diocese contains 211 parishes and 280 churches. Blackburn Cathedral is the seat of the bishop of Blackburn ...

. The benefice of East Lonsdale combines this church with St Peter, Leck, St Wilfrid, Melling, St James the Less, Tatham, The Good Shepherd, Lowgill, and Holy Trinity, Wray. The church is recorded in the

National Heritage List for England The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, ...

as a designated Grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

. Services are usually at 11:00 on 2nd & 4th Sundays, in rota with the sister church at Leck.

History

A church at Tunstall is recorded in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

of 1086, but the oldest structure in the present church dates from the 13th century. The church was rebuilt around 1415 by Sir Thomas Tunstal. Alterations were made to the church in the 16th century. In the 1820s it was attended by the Brontë sisters during the time they were receiving education at the Clergy Daughters' School at nearby

Cowan Bridge Cowan Bridge is a village in the English county of Lancashire. It is south-east of the town of Kirkby Lonsdale where the main A65 road crosses the Leck Beck. It forms part of the civil parish of Burrow-with-Burrow. Clergy Daughters' School C ...

. In 1907 the church was restored by the

Lancaster Lancaster may refer to: Lands and titles *The County Palatine of Lancaster, a synonym for Lancashire *Duchy of Lancaster, one of only two British royal duchies *Duke of Lancaster *Earl of Lancaster *House of Lancaster, a British royal dynasty ...

architects

Austin and Paley Sharpe, Paley and Austin are the surnames of architects who practised in Lancaster, Lancashire, England, between 1835 and 1946, working either alone or in partnership. The full names of the principals in their practice, which went under variou ...

; this included re-roofing the church, enlarging the organ chamber, and adding a

vestry A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government of a parish in England, Wales and some English colony, English colonies. At their height, the vestries were the only form of local government in many places and spen ...

, at a cost of about £1,000 ().

Architecture

Exterior

The church is built in

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

rubble Rubble is broken stone, of irregular size, shape and texture; undressed especially as a filling-in. Rubble naturally found in the soil is known also as 'brash' (compare cornbrash)."Rubble" def. 2., "Brash n. 2. def. 1. ''Oxford English Dictionar ...

with a

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...

roof. Its plan consists of a west tower, a

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

and

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...

under a continuous roof, north and south

aisle An aisle is a linear space for walking with rows of non-walking spaces on both sides. Aisles with seating on both sides can be seen in airplanes, in buildings such as churches, cathedrals, synagogues, meeting halls, parliaments, courtrooms, ...

s, and a two-storey south porch. The tower has diagonal

buttress A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient (typically Gothic) buildings, as a means of providing support to act ...

es and an

embattled A battlement, in defensive architecture, such as that of city walls or castles, comprises a parapet (a defensive low wall between chest-height and head-height), in which gaps or indentations, which are often rectangular, occur at intervals t ...

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an upward extension of a wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/brea ...

. Above each of the small bell openings is a carved tablet of an angel holding a shield. The west door has a pointed head above which is a three-light window with

Perpendicular In geometry, two geometric objects are perpendicular if they intersect at right angles, i.e. at an angle of 90 degrees or π/2 radians. The condition of perpendicularity may be represented graphically using the '' perpendicular symbol'', � ...

tracery Tracery is an architectural device by which windows (or screens, panels, and vaults) are divided into sections of various proportions by stone ''bars'' or ''ribs'' of moulding. Most commonly, it refers to the stonework elements that support th ...

. The aisles have embattled parapets, as does the porch. Above the door of the porch is a niche with a

sundial A sundial is a horology, horological device that tells the time of day (referred to as civil time in modern usage) when direct sunlight shines by the position of the Sun, apparent position of the Sun in the sky. In the narrowest sense of the ...

plate and above that a small one-light window.

Interior

Internally the

respond In architecture, a respond is a half-pier or half-pillar that is bonded into a wall and designed to carry the springer at one end of an arch An arch is a curved vertical structure spanning an open space underneath it. Arches may support th ...

s of the north arcade have early 13th-century

capitals Capital and its variations may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** Capital region, a metropolitan region containing the capital ** List of national capitals * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Econom ...

and the west

lancet window A lancet window is a tall, narrow window with a sharp pointed arch at its top. This arch may or may not be a steep lancet arch (in which the compass centres for drawing the arch fall outside the opening). It acquired the "lancet" name from its rese ...

s of the north aisle are probably also from this century. Dating from the 1907 restoration are the roof, and the chancel screen. A

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

votive A votive offering or votive deposit is one or more objects displayed or deposited, without the intention of recovery or use, in a sacred place for religious purposes. Such items are a feature of modern and ancient societies and are generally ...

stone, thought to be linked to

Over Burrow Roman Fort Over Burrow Roman Fort is the modern name given to a former Roman fort at Over Burrow (or Burrow-in-Londsale), Lancashire in North West England. Today it is the site of the 18th-century country house Burrow Hall. The first castra is thought to h ...

, has been built into the surround of a window in the north aisle. At the east end of the south aisle is a chapel known as the Chapel of the Holy Trinity. In the chapel is a mutilated

effigy An effigy is a sculptural representation, often life-size, of a specific person or a prototypical figure. The term is mostly used for the makeshift dummies used for symbolic punishment in political protests and for the figures burned in certain ...

which is said to be of Sir Thomas Tunstal. Under the tower arch is an 18th-century oval

marble Marble is a metamorphic rock consisting of carbonate minerals (most commonly calcite (CaCO3) or Dolomite (mineral), dolomite (CaMg(CO3)2) that have recrystallized under the influence of heat and pressure. It has a crystalline texture, and is ty ...

font In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a ''typeface'', defined as the set of fonts that share an overall design. For instance, the typeface Bauer Bodoni (shown in the figure) includes fonts " Roman" (or "regul ...

on sandstone

baluster A baluster () is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its ...

base. The east window contains glass from the Netherlands dating from the late 15th and the 16th centuries. It was donated to the church in 1810 by Richard Toulmin North of nearby Thurland Castle. In the south wall is stained glass dated 1979 by Jane Gray. In the church are a number of memorials to the Fenwick family. The two- manual organ was built in 1923 by Harrison and Harrison. The church also owns a 16th-century painting by Francesco Montemezzano. It was probably donated to the church in the early 19th century by Frederick Needham (the church's vicar from 1810 to 1816), who was a half-brother of the church's patron, Richard Toulmin North of Thurland Castle.A Mystery Old Master
''Fake or Fortune?'', BBC, 19 July 2015. The painting was removed for restoration in connection with a BBC television programme discussed below. The painting is now back in the church and can be visited any time the church is open, usually 09:30 – 16:00 seven days a week. There is information about the painting, and copies of it for sale, in the church.

External features

Near the church there is a sandstone

base dating probably from the 18th century consisting of a round column with a square cap on a base of three octagonal steps. It is listed at Grade II. The churchyard also contains the

war graves A war grave is a burial place for members of the armed forces or civilians who died during military campaigns or operations. Definition The term "war grave" does not only apply to graves: ships sunk during wartime are often considered to b ...

of four service personnel of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

In media

The church was featured in an episode of the

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television b ...

television series ''

Fake or Fortune? ''Fake or Fortune?'' is a BBC One documentary television series which examines the provenance and attribution of notable artworks. Since the first series aired in 2011, ''Fake or Fortune?'' has drawn audiences of up to 5 million viewers in t ...

'' that aired on 19 July 2015 (Series 4, Episode 3). The identity of the artist who created the church's 16th-century painting of the

Lamentation of Christ The Lamentation of Christ is a very common subject in Christian art from the High Middle Ages to the Baroque. After Crucifixion of Jesus, Jesus was crucified, his Descent from the Cross, body was removed from the cross and his friends mourned over ...

had been a mystery, but an investigation of the painting and its history revealed that it was a work by Venetian artist Francesco Montemezzano. The painting is believed to have left Venice after the

fall of the Venetian Republic The Republic of Venice was dissolved and dismembered by the French general Napoleon Bonaparte and the Habsburg monarchy on 12 May 1797, ending approximately 1,100 years of its existence. It was the final action of Napoleon's Italian campaign ...

in 1797, when systematic looting of art took place.

References

External links

Stained glassThe parish of Tunstall
at British History Online For more information, see our Facebook page:
Tunstall Church Trust, Lunesdale
" and https://eastlonsdalebenefice.wordpress.com . The bi-monthly parish magazine, "The Bell' is available on this site, and in any of the six churches. {{DEFAULTSORT:Tunstall, John the Baptist Buildings and structures completed in 1450 Churches completed in the 1450s 15th-century church buildings in England Church of England church buildings in Lancashire Grade I listed churches in Lancashire English Gothic architecture in Lancashire Churches in the City of Lancaster Austin and Paley buildings Diocese of Blackburn 1450 establishments in England Churches dedicated to John the Baptist in England